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Comment by hannofcart | Hacker News Reader

It's not just 'Sacred Games'. Other Netflix originals like 'Lust Stories' are breaking the Bollywood mould and telling stories that are too taboo for Bollywood. Great job, Netflix!

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To be honest, its less about being a Taboo (see films like Chameli, Chandni Bar, Fashion) have tried telling taboo stories. Its the censor board which is so inconsistent that it doesn't even make sense. This platform helps them bypass it and its working, and its also being accepted by the viewers . Win-Win-Win

Censor board can censor Netflix as well if it gains critical mass in India. So the platform cannot help bypass the censor board

Not true. Doesn’t apply to television and internet.

Doesn't mean technologically ignorant judges and government agencies haven't tried their best to censor things on the Internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_India

They can not. As long as its on Internet. They might have to ban Netflix in India all together, If I am not mistaken.

Maybe I'm biased coming from (North) American culture but I'm always amazed at the level of government intervention Indians tolerate. Every time I read about the regulatory landscape there it blows my mind (ie, hearing how a truck delivering something across the country needs to stop 8 times in every county they pass to make sure they have proper paperwork). It's always terribly excessive and almost illogical by design (arbitrary laws to give abitrary power to the individuals impementing it).

"It's always terribly excessive and almost illogical by design"

Well, its a basic human emotion, greed. Never gets satisfied. However absurd it might get.

I think they're mostly being careful. In polite, educated society Netflix's content isn't going to cause any problems, but in some places there is a real danger to public order from broadcast media.

"Fake news" has resulted in the deaths of dozens of people in India this year[1]. I think reasonable people should value free and uncensored media, but I also think reasonable people can disagree on the degree to which that freedom should be valued relative to public safety. It's certainly ugly to think "only people who can afford Netflix can be trusted to watch controversial content and not kill each other" though.

1: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-44897714

My response is the potential for abuse and the natural growth in scale and scope of oversight negates the utility of such control of media. I'd bet a thousand dollars for every violent act prevented through censure there were 100 arbitrary, social, or overly careful controls that had little real benefit to society.

If America took this advice they'd have banned goth music and violent video games in a 'think of the children' antiviolence bullshit narrative.

Not to mention the idea you can regulate your way out of 'fake news' (even ignoring the massive cost to culture, political freedom, and spread of knowledge) is ridiculous and naive.

It's the legacy of the "license Raj". While post-independence India didn't quite go communist, it was a planned economy. This in turn is a legacy of British India as a planned extractive economy, e.g. the salt tax and monopoly.

Re: truck stopping. That's no longer the case. While it has teething issues, in 2017 a single tax replaced all domestic taxes except income tax. Trucks can travel the length and breadth of the country without being stopped. I do agree with the rest of what you're saying though, Indians trust government to do the right thing much more than Americans would.

Not anymore. GST has streamlined it. I am not from the trucking industry but I have some friends who are. GST has done away with local taxes and the Trucking industry has benefited from it.

You should know that the e-way bill system is applicable to end customers as well - if the value of goods that you are transporting in your private vehicle exceeds Rs.50,000, you are liable to get an E-way bill prepared! Think I am joking? See this: https://cleartax.in/s/eway-bill-end-consumer/

Are you from the USA? I’m not sure how it is in Canada, but the US has a very funny view on nudity.

Indeed. USA treats human body as something to be shameful about. A wardrobe malfunction at a concert becomes such big news. Any kind of nudity is considered taboo and censored on national broadcast channels.

Well let me blow your mind even more - My taxi had to stop at a government office (not a toll both) to pay the tax for crossing over from Delhi to Uttar Pradesh while visiting Taj Mahal. It was too early in the morning so the office was closed. So we couldn't pay the tax. We crossed over without paying tax. The driver told me you can pay the tax online and you should have paid it even before you started the journey. I was like how the fuck am I supposed to know that I have to pay some tax online for going from Delhi to Taj Mahal. On the way back we had to pay tax again while entering Delhi (that was a toll booth though) but the guy wanted a proof that we had paid the tax in the morning. Fortunately, by that time owner of the taxi company had paid the tax online on our behalf and we could show the guy the text message confirmation - lol.

Regarding the trucks, they don't have to stop at every county. As far as I know, they are checked randomly at check posts at every state, similar to your border crossing checkpoints. In my opinion, they are not doing enough checks. Recently, in my state, they have increased checks on trucks bringing sea food and caught lot of them with harmful additives in them.

>Large quantities of adulterated fish have been seized from many border check-posts in the past month.

Example 1: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/6-000-kg-of-formal...

Example 2: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/formalin-laced-fishes-...

While you guys are worried about small quantities of lead or micro plastics or dying or mislabeling of fish, we have to worry about really harmful stuff in them.

Strangely, YouTube recommended me this video yesterday (California teacher refuses to answer question at checkpoint, detained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAASgPU1BQc). Thankfully, we haven't reached this level in India yet. If anything, my complaint is we don't have enough checks. We should have 1000 times more checks in India on everything. If we have the kind of policing and other regulations you have in USA, India would become a paradise.

Why would a truck need to be checked multiple times for the exact same thing and pay for it to happen? What makes stopping at each state unique and valuable to Indian society when it had stopped before?

The problem isn't that they are being checked, its obviously the fact theyd have to stop at each state to pay a tax or do the exact same regulatory oversight multipl times... instead of just flashing some paperwork from a prior check? Ideally at beginning or end points?

Thank the post colonial hangover for that. The current govt is doing some great things in this regard. GST has made this “stops at border of states” a thing of the past now.

I don’t think Netflix would have survived with the earlier regime in India which had sustained this monster called the censor board.

The current ruling party, though projected by the Indian and international media as conservative, hasn’t created any issues for Netflix to operate as is, which I think is very very surprising (and pleasant).

With the kind of mindless censorship, most movies and series are boring to watch on Indian tv. Netflix is a great departure from the rest of the content that treats its viewers as kids.

You should read up on the e-way bill system that has been introduced. It is a total nightmare. Do you realise that under this law even ordinary citizens have to generate e-way bills if they transport anything valued at over Rs.50,000 in their own vehicle?! Technically you can be help liable even if you have a laptop or even a phone valued at over Rs.50K in Total - that is, if the value of the goods totals upto Rs.50,000. This is rife for abuse.

I’m not aware of this issue. Even if it exists, I’m positive that it’ll be fixed sooner than later.

Such a big overhaul for a country of 1.3 billion indeed will have some quirks that’d need to be fixed over a few iterations.

I wasn't expecting much from lust stories, but it was surprisingly (for me) good and compelling. Sacred games was everything I expected and more! Hopefully moves like this will raise the bar for TV programming across the country. Or atleast for the target audience I'm part of.

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